Her parents brought her to the club to 'socialize', but they're the ones doing all the socializing. And now they've met some business friends of her dad's, and there's some secrecy clause about an upcoming deal, or something? So her mother's at the bar getting a drink with the guys' wives, but Emma's only twenty. So here she is, wandering around on the golf course, enjoying the sunset and trying to kill time until she can go back inside. And really, honestly missing school, where she doesn't have to go through this nonsense.
Finally she decides she's had enough of being outside- however much her mother protests that really, Connecticut is lovely in the fall, it's also chilly- and she starts to make her way back to the clubhouse. She's walking up the golf cart trail through the trees to get across the last hole when suddenly she realizes-
-the clubhouse isn't there any more. There's just more forest.
...what just happened?
"No, no no, I don't need anything," Emma flushes, embarrassed to be caught. "I just- wish I could be more helpful."
"I could think of things to fill time, if the books are boring you, but they'd be unrelated to the gate."
"I didn't mean- I can be helpful with non-gate things," she clarifies hurriedly. "I just feel- if there's something, anything, I could do to make your life easier, since you're doing all this work to help me..."
"Well, keeping the place clean is helpful, and so is fixing meals, and if you want there's leaves and sewing needles in the basket over there for making dresses and I can always do with more of those."
Since she's already done meals and cleaning today, she settles for 'dress'. She starts sorting out the basket. Plain dress first, then something fancier? There's a couple smaller leaves she could use as a decoration, maybe- and the leaves are in enough shades that she could probably sort them out, she could do a dark green fading into lighter shades-
This will keep her occupied for a while.
"That could take a while; I can check it a couple of times a day to see if it's settled," Promise says when she's done casting. "Will you tell me how to find you in case I want to visit the mortal world sometime for longer than I can easily bring my own food for?"
She obtains a piece of paper and writes down an address, phone number, and email address. The address includes very detailed directions from the gate to her house; the phone number and email address have shorter explanations, since she expects Promise would need to find a passerby to help her obtain a phone or email account anyway. Then she blinks at Promise. "How would you- people don't have wings, really. Can you hide them somehow...?"
"I could wear a cloak. I might not come by at all, but if the Queen finds me here or something it would be nice to be able to escape. I'm not sure what else I'd do in the mortal world. What's it like?"
Then part of her brain catches up to her. "Wait, Queen?"
"There's a fairy who knows every other fairy's name, by magic, but there are a lot of fairies and she isn't nearby, so I probably won't get her attention any time soon. She's the Queen."
That sounds horrible. Someone could do what River did to her to Promise. No no no no no. She shivers violently, horrified. "You can come stay with me," she repeats. "Why does she- what does she even... do?"
"She knows the names just because of the kind of fairy she is; some kinds of fairies get magic with our kinds. She has a large court and takes whatever she wants."
"She shouldn't be able to do that," she says instead, quiet but firm. "No one should be able to do that."
Nope, not thinking about this now.
"If you know what a kind looks like you can usually identify them by looking, although there are usually other differences that aren't so obvious, too."
"That's what I'm led to understand, yes, just mortals in a few colors and all one kind."